Populistic and nationalistic tendencies in nearly all states of the EU are proof for a waning awareness among the European population for the importance of democracy and the EU. While there have been changes from totalitarian systems to democracies in almost all European countries, there also exists a generation that is no longer aware of the dangers of totalitarian or highly authoritarian regimes and of the values and importance of democracy and the EU (partly, because in many European countries the European idea is not even firmly established in national curricula).As active citizens are necessary to defend those values and ideas, the project would like to create a new awareness for common European values and for the EU as an institution that preserves peace and defends personal freedoms. In order to achieve this all the participants are supposed to discuss and work on the respective regional history of totalitarian systems and democracy in Europe.By looking at propaganda and the way systems treat members of the opposition pupils are also supposed to learn to think critically and find ways of coping with modern media methods.On the other hand they are supposed to learn about people’s difficult everyday lives in totalitarian systems by interviewing contemporary witnesses and thereby finding out about the historical, societal and political developments in their own regions.At the same time the partner school in Yerewan will offer a new perspective by focusing on present changes in Armenia (anti-government protests; Velvet Revolution) and by looking at the role social media and networks play for a change towards democracy nowadays.By looking at different opinions on democracy and the EU, by discussing European core values and by working on the project in a creative way (e.g. songwriting, podcasting) all the participants are supposed to become aware of the common values they share and at the same time they are supposed to start feeling responsible for Europe’s future by becoming more engaged.Besides, the work in international teams and the contact with the families and friends of the partners will promote soft skills and language skills both among the pupils and the teachers, reduce existing prejudices and promote a personal and authentic understanding of the partners’ historical, political and individual perspectives in the long term.By learning how to use digital media in order to create interviews, to do research work and for the presentations of results, pupils will acquire important skills for their later professional life or for their studies at a university. They will also learn how to create OER-material and use them in their project work.5 schools with different profiles will be taking part in the project (with pupils at the age of 16-18, all of them having different social and cultural backgrounds). And all of these schools will offer a different focus (F) on the project by either looking at the respective regional history or by having a very own distinctive school profile:Regiomontanus-Gymnasium Haßfurt, Germany (coordinating institution; F: life with the iron curtain, escape stories) /Liceul Ferdinand Regele, Rumania (F: ideologies, the emergence of dictatorships, oral history)/Georg Otsa nim. Tallina Muusikakool, Estonia (F: artistic and creative transfer, development of democracy, songwriting) /Agrupamento de Escolas Damiao de Goes, Portugal (F: opposition, idols, censorship) /Yerewan Highschool, Armenia (eTwinning – partner; F: present changes, the road to democracy).The schools will incorporate work on on results of the project into their regular lessons, special seminars and long term projects. Pupils and teachers will work on the project in international teams (extracurricular activities and different workshops in and between the mobilities). They will be helped along by external partners (e.g. The University of Cluj, different museums, time witnesses). Therefore they will meet in six short mobilities (teacher and pupil mobilities).Teachers will develop their own skills by exchanging examples of good practice and learning with and from each other through collaboration, focusing on non-formal learning and the use and production of digital media. Therefore they will meet in two special mobilities for teachers only. (These teacher trainings will also contribute to the teachers individual and their schools’ long term developments.)The main results will be:ebook containing a full documentation of the project, podcasts, research papers from seminars, a project trailer and interviews (youtube channel), an eTwinning website, handouts on method training and media usage, presentations resulting from the mobilities, results of (self-)evaluation at different project stages and participants’ reports on their experiences and development. Most of these results will be presented as OER-materials to be freely used by schools.

"The project ""Traces of Jewish life in Europe"" is a project for learning and critical thinking on the historic topic of the treatment, life and cultural influence of Jews in 5 European regions: Germany, Portugal, Poland, Romania and Greece.In it, pupils from very different social and economic backgrounds and teachers with different expertise and educational experiences, will participate, so that everyone will contribute to achieve a richness of perspectives and outputs that could not be achieved by just working in one of the five regions or within the limits of just one of the five different educational systems.The project aims at the creation of a book containing results of the research, allowing a multiregional and multidimensional understanding of Jewish History, its causes and consequences, as well as its heritage in the participating countries. This book shall fulfil the standards of OER and shall be available online, and server as the basis of further work on the subject and education based on the planned collection of selected local sources/examples not readily availabe elsewhere.Another practical and sustainable result will e a tourist guide to traces of Jewish life in Porto that is to be available in several European languages.Finally the project will allow transnational and comparative research as the basis of research papers in a German W-Seminary in History that are part of the German Abitur and that will be made available online.At the same time, it is expected that issues, involving a conscious, responsible and critical citizenship, will be further developed and promoted. Through a collaborative and innovative learning and the development of an active citizenship, it is intended to improve employability and support future learning and career paths.This way, young Europeans from different countries will develop the strategic use of ICT, OER for learning, research and dissemination. That means they will need to train flexible learning and virtual mobility and will thereby improve the employability of the European workforce.The online and ""live"" communication and cooperation will be a strong motivation as well as a training-ground for the development and practical application of language competences as a key dimension of modernising European education to foster the mobility of workers and students and improve the employability of the European workforce. The mobilities planned in every partner country will enable differentiated learning in formal and non-formal contexts for all participants: teachers and pupils, and will substantially improve motivation and openness to diversity, breaking and avoiding traditional stereotypes, clichés and limitations of national historical traditions or curricula.The possibility to interchange innovative practices in education by supporting professional development of teachers and educators can increase the quality of education and range of training in ICT-based methodologies and use of OER based collaboration on the topic of Jewish life in Europe.Working on the project will initiate intercultural education as a basis of social integration and prevent drop-out and promote participation of disadvantaged groups in society.As a main impact, there is the expectation of a change of mentality in the participants, eliminating the fear of difference and promoting the inclusion of every one in society.The long term benefits will lie in - a better understanding of the importance and effect of History for/on culture and identity and our role in the present and future- reinforcing the importance of school as a tool and place of integration and social inclusion - an empowerment as individuals and as active participants in cultural and social changes; an improvement of the quality teaching- an increment and strengthening of the European dimension in education- strengthening of the relations with all the community.All the activities have focus on the one hand on a strong cultural component - Jewish heritage and its influence. The mobilities will allow the participants to visit sacred and historic places that marked national and European events and a whole people.On the another hand, the activities will allow the sharing of strategies, methods, ideas that enable innovation in the teaching-learning process, enhance motivation, the practice of ICT and foreign language."